Success stories: workplace training partnerships

We deliver accredited training into workplaces and schools as well as to individual students. This page is the routing point for that work: what CHT records about the partnerships it has run, what a workplace training arrangement actually involves, and where the obligations sit.

If you are deciding whether workplace delivery suits your organisation, the mechanics below matter more than any testimonial. This page deliberately publishes no outcome statistics, satisfaction figures or student quotes. Where a partner's results are quoted anywhere, ask the partner or CHT for them directly.

The partnerships CHT records

Those descriptions come from our own records rather than from a regulator, and they describe the qualification and the audience, not the results. Each case page explains the training pathway that applies in that setting, which is the transferable part.

The provider behind all three is RTO 3722, whose scope of registration holds 17 current qualifications, 81 current skill sets and 579 current units of competency, every one at the extent "deliver and assess" — so for each component CHT both delivers the training and makes the assessment judgement. CRICOS registration covers three qualifications only, SIT40422, SIT50322 and SIT50422, which matters if a workforce includes student visa holders.

What a workplace arrangement actually involves

Delivering a nationally recognised qualification into a workplace does not lower any requirement. It changes where the training happens, not what it demands.

Every learner is enrolled individually. A group booking is a set of individual enrolments, and the pre-enrolment obligation applies to each of them. Standard 2.2 of the Outcome Standards for RTOs requires that students are advised, prior to enrolment, about the suitability of the training product for them, taking account of their skills and competencies. Its performance indicators require the RTO to have procedures to review, before enrolment, each prospective student's skills and competencies including their language, literacy and numeracy proficiency and their digital literacy, and then to advise them whether the product suits them.

That review is the pre-training review. In our process it also establishes the learner's support needs and current competencies, identifies opportunities for recognition of prior learning or credit transfer, and shapes the learning and assessment strategy. For an employer this is the step that cannot be done once for a cohort: the obligation is owed to each individual, and a group of twelve staff means twelve reviews.

One point of care for anyone cross-checking the citation: two different instruments each have a "Standard 2.2". The one above, in the Outcome Standards for RTOs, is the pre-enrolment suitability review and applies to every learner. The National Code 2018 also has a Standard 2.2, which concerns assessing an overseas student's English, qualifications or work experience for course entry and applies to international students only. They are not the same obligation, so the instrument is worth naming rather than citing the bare number.

For nationally recognised training, a USI is generally required before a qualification or Statement of Attainment can be issued, unless an applicable exemption applies. See the official USI exemption guidance. It is free; recover an existing USI rather than creating another. Your USI must not be printed on the certificate.

The qualification is unchanged. Certificate IV in Hospitality is 21 units whether it is delivered in a classroom or on site. Packaging rules are set by the training package, not negotiated between a provider and an employer.

Assessment still requires evidence. Units with service-period requirements — SITHFAB034 needs twelve service periods with full menu advice in every one, SITHFAB027 needs five including at least one peak — need those periods to actually happen. A working venue often makes this easier rather than harder, because the evidence is generated during normal trading. See restaurant waiting.

Trainer requirements do not change by venue. Industry currency, credentialling and the limits on industry experts apply on site exactly as they do in a classroom. See trainers and assessors.

Certification timing does not change either. Once a learner is assessed as meeting the training product requirements, certification must issue within 30 calendar days of the assessment being completed, provided the product is complete and all agreed fees are paid.

Partial completion still produces a real outcome. Someone who leaves part-way receives a Statement of Attainment for the units achieved, recorded against their USI on their national training transcript, and it credit-transfers to another RTO. Training is not lost when a staff member moves on.

Placement, where the learner is not your employee

Where a qualification carries a placement requirement, there are three routes, and a host venue may see any of them:

1. a vocational placement the provider arranges under its own agreements with venues, for learners not currently in paid hospitality employment;
2. a self-arranged vocational placement, also for learners not in paid employment;
3. a work placement at the learner's existing paid hospitality job, which is what a traineeship or apprenticeship normally uses.

All three require a Placement Agreement completed before the placement commences, setting out supervision, workplace conduct and the learning outcomes expected, for the learner, the venue and the provider. There is no version of this that starts with the learner turning up and the paperwork following.

One obligation runs the other way and host venues are often unaware of it. Under Standard 2.6 the provider must identify wellbeing needs by reference to the training product's content, and the regulator expects that to extend to third-party environments such as work placements. A provider asking questions about supervision, rostering and conduct in your venue is discharging its own duty, not auditing yours.

If the arrangement is a traineeship or apprenticeship

This is where workplace training stops being only an education question and becomes a wage question. The training plan is a pay document as much as a learning document.

It is a three-party contract, not a provider service

Training Services NSW puts the model plainly: "Training is a responsibility shared by the training provider, employer and apprentice or trainee." The training contract is legally binding and specifies the qualification, the hours of training and employment provided each week, each party's obligations to the others, the off-the-job and on-the-job training arrangements, and what to do if there is an issue. On the employer's side it records three commitments in particular:

• providing the right facilities and experienced people to train, supervise and support the apprentice or trainee;
• working with the RTO and the learner according to the training plan;
• allowing them time off work with pay to attend formal training and assessment.

Getting approved, which works differently in each state

Victoria approves the employer before any contract is signed. The VRQA must approve an employer before it can sign a training contract, and in deciding it considers the premises, the equipment and methods used for training, whether the person supervising has appropriate qualifications, knowledge and skills and is a fit and proper person to train apprentices or trainees, and whether the employer is a fit and proper person to employ one. Approval is granted for an industry, or a grouping of related qualifications within a specific industry or field of study, so moving into a different industry means going through approval again.

New South Wales has no standing employer approval. Training Services assesses employer suitability at each training contract, considering whether the employer can meet the contract requirements, whether the qualification suits the intended occupation, whether the training supervisor has appropriate qualifications, knowledge and skills, and whether the premises, equipment and methods suit the work and the training.

So a multi-site employer should expect one approval process per industry in Victoria and one per contract in New South Wales.

Supervision, which is the obligation regulators actually enforce

The VRQA's position is unusually blunt: "Supervision is a non-negotiable requirement of the Victorian apprenticeship and traineeship system." Its authorised officers check supervision arrangements when they contact apprentices and trainees or visit workplaces, and it will ban employers who are not properly supervising from hiring apprentices and trainees in Victoria. In one six-month period the VRQA banned 17 employers, with supervision non-compliance a key reason in most of those cases.

The direct supervisor's own qualification is specified rather than assumed:

And one rule that is absolute: apprentices and trainees must not supervise other apprentices or trainees. Supervision is also expected to be calibrated to risk — a first-year apprentice in a hot kitchen needs closer supervision than a fourth-year — and it moves through two recognised levels: direct supervision by a designated, qualified staff member while the person is learning a skill, then general supervision once they are competent in it. Many employers also nominate a mentor, who need not be the supervisor.

Trainees: the 20 per cent rule

A full-time traineeship is 38 ordinary hours a week, with 20 per cent of those hours being approved training. A part-time traineeship works the same way on fewer hours. The training may be delivered wholly on the job, wholly off the job, or partly each.

A trainee is entitled to be released from work without loss of pay and without loss of continuity of employment to attend any training and assessment specified in or associated with the training contract, and that time counts as time worked. School-based traineeships vary.

There is a trap in how the delivery mode interacts with the wage:

So a line in the training plan describing the training as workplace-based moves the employer to the reduced calculation. It is worth knowing before the plan is signed, not after.

Apprentices: progression is competency-based

Where apprenticeship legislation permits competency-based progression and the training contract does not say otherwise, apprentices indentured after 23 January 2020 progress by stage rather than by year.

Those percentages apply to the award's standard rate, which under the hospitality award is the Level 4 rate. A classification error at Level 4 therefore propagates to every apprentice on the roster.

An apprentice moves up when the state or territory and training package requirements are met and either the RTO, employer and apprentice agree they are met, or the employer has been given written advice that the RTO has assessed the apprentice as meeting the requirements for all relevant units and has not raised a disagreement within 21 days of receiving it. Silence for 21 days is deemed agreement. An employer who files the letter and does nothing accrues an underpayment. The higher rate is payable from the first full pay period on or after the date agreement is reached.

Disputes go to the state or territory apprenticeship authority — the VRQA in Victoria, Training Services NSW in New South Wales — or otherwise through the award's dispute resolution clause. Both employer and apprentice have a right of referral.

The training plan is the instrument that makes this work

If the training plan does not map units to the 25, 50 and 75 per cent milestones, wage progression cannot be administered correctly. That is a shared risk between the RTO and the employer, not the employer's alone.

The plan is agreed by all three parties and is described as a living document. It has to contain:

• the title of the formal qualification and the commencement date of formal training;
• the units of competency, including any elective units;
• the mode of delivery — classroom, block release, online;
• how and when assessments will happen;
• the training materials the RTO provides;
• the specific assistance the RTO will provide for any literacy, numeracy or mentoring need;
• the competency record books or work evidence records the employer signs off.

And the cadence is specified rather than left to judgement:

The last two rows are the ones employers are least often told about. The RTO assessing the units is not the end of it: the employer's confirmation that the person is competent in the workplace has to be obtained and retained. And if a learner stops attending, or is not being released for training, the RTO has a duty to report it rather than wait for the next review — so telling the provider early is in everyone's interest.

In New South Wales the training plan carries extra requirements: it must use the Training Plan proforma issued by Training Services, must support competency-based progression and completion, must be updated at least every six months, and must be developed within 12 weeks of Training Services approving the training contract. See also how to build an effective training plan.

Recognition and credit: two different things

For an established workforce this is usually the biggest lever, and the two mechanisms are frequently confused.

Our own policy adds detail worth knowing before an employer plans a program. Applications are made before enrolment or at the start of study, using our RPL application form. Credit transfer attracts no fee to the student, and we receive no funding when it is granted. RPL is not available through government funding — it is available for fee-for-service units. And credit transfer cannot be granted for units that are not on our scope of registration.

The effect scales with the size of the qualification. Certificate IV in Kitchen Management is 33 units, 27 of them core. An experienced chef may already demonstrate a substantial share of that in practice. Both mechanisms are identified at the pre-training review required under Standard 2.2 of the Outcome Standards, learner by learner. See skills assessment.

Why a qualification changes what an employee must be paid

This is the part employers most often miss. A relevant Certificate III is not only a training outcome; in three of the four awards covering this industry it is a classification floor.

First, the premises decides which award applies, not the job title. The same job title maps to a different award and a different pay table depending on where the person works.

Two traps are worth stating plainly. Registered clubs are not covered by MA000009 — clause 4.4(d)(i) of that award expressly excludes clubs registered or recognised under state or territory legislation, and a club must be both registered under a liquor, gaming, associations or corporations statute and operating not-for-profit for its members and the community to sit under MA000058. And night clubs are not under the clubs award — a night club is a commercial venue, so it sits under MA000119.

Second, the Level 4 floor. Under MA000009 (clause 18.1), MA000119 (clause 18.1) and MA000058 (clause 18.3), a relevant AQF Certificate III or higher, used at work, sets a minimum classification of Level 4. The fast food award has no equivalent provision. MA000009 and MA000119 both require that the employee actually makes use of the skills and knowledge derived from the Certificate III competencies, so it is not automatic on completion; MA000058 states the floor without the words "or higher" and allows the Fair Work Commission to require the employee to demonstrate that they use the relevant skills.

No pay rates are published on this page. Award rates re-set every 1 July and a stale figure is worse than none. Check the current rate in the award itself or through the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool. See also working hours, rosters and public holidays.

Two constraints to check before you plan a program

Delivery reach is not uniform. On our own delivery information, the hospitality Certificate IIIs, Certificate IV in Hospitality, Certificate II in Cookery, the business qualifications and the community services qualifications are available in all eight states and territories; commercial cookery is SA, TAS, VIC and WA; kitchen management is VIC and WA; and both diplomas are Victoria only. For a multi-site employer that decides what is possible where. The scope register itself carries no jurisdiction field, so confirm the current position for your state. See all courses.

Compliance training follows different rules from development training. If the driver is a legal obligation rather than staff development, state rules bite:

• Check the destination’s RSA requirements. We are on Liquor Control Victoria’s approved list for in-person one-day RSA delivery and are not on its self-paced online list. In Victoria, an interstate RSA certificate generally cannot be used on its own. Eligible holders can apply for the free RSA Refresher bridging course to obtain a Victorian certificate. LCV requires approved original RSA training completed within the last three years and, for an online course, residence interstate or overseas at the time. Allow about ten working days for the application. LCV lists a specific exemption for interstate liquor producers at qualifying temporary or major events. Check the Victorian eligibility and event rules before relying on a certificate. See RSA in Australia.
• Food handler training is not Food Safety Supervisor certification. They are separate obligations with different units and different renewal rules. See Food Safety Supervisor.
• We are not on the NSW Food Authority's approved provider list, so we cannot issue the NSW Food Safety Supervisor certificate. A NSW business needing that certificate needs a NSW-approved provider. This is stated here because it is the kind of gap an employer should discover before a program starts, not after.
• Victorian RSG is free approved training: online modules through RSG Online and venue-arranged sessions with venue support workers. National SITHGAM training does not replace it. See the official training requirements and our RSG guide.

Checking the certificate at the end

Worth knowing if training is arranged through an intermediary, a group training organisation or a broker. The Nationally Recognised Training logo must appear on AQF certification documentation issued by a registered training organisation, and must not appear on other testamurs or transcripts of results, or be used in any way that creates a misleading impression. And a third party may not issue AQF certification documentation, use the NRT logo, or use the RTO's branding. If certification arrives from anyone other than the RTO, that is a defect in the document.

Questions worth asking any provider

• Which units will staff actually complete, and does that add up to a full qualification or a Statement of Attainment?
• How will assessment evidence be gathered during normal operations, and who observes it?
• What RPL is available for experienced staff, and what is the cost against full delivery?
• Is the qualification on the provider's national scope, and does the provider currently deliver it in our state?
• What is the trainer's currency for these units, and who makes the assessment judgement?
• If this is a traineeship, is the training on the job or off the job, and what does that do to the rate?
• Does the training plan map units to the 25, 50 and 75 per cent milestones, and when will we receive the signed copy?
• Who is our named direct supervisor, and do they hold what the state requires for this vocation?
• What happens if a staff member leaves part-way?
• Will completion move anyone to a higher award classification?

About us

We are Complete Hospitality Training, RTO 3722, CRICOS provider code 04242E. Level 3, 28 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, and 410 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010. melbourne@cht.edu.au | +61 3 9654 1554.

See our story, trainers and assessors, all courses, skills assessment, policies or contact.

We link to the relevant course and regulatory sources in this guide. Check those sources for current requirements, and confirm course availability, delivery, fees and entry requirements with us before enrolling.

Source records and further guidance

We link the unit records and regulator guidance relevant to this page below. Check the current source before making an enrolment, licensing or employment decision.

• SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality
• SIT50322 Diploma of Event Management
• SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management
• SITHFAB027 Serve food and beverage
• SITHFAB034 Provide table service of food and beverage
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Victoria)
• Food Safety Supervisor certificate requirements (New South Wales)
• Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)
• Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119)
• National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 — Standards 1 to 11
• Outcome Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2025 (full text)
• Unique Student Identifier (USI) requirements for RTOs